Born on July 25, 1920, Chushiro Hayashi graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in physics in 1942. After World War II service in the navy, he returned to school, finishing his doctorate in 1954 and becoming a professor at Kyoto University in 1957. An innovator, he applied fundamental physics to astronomy andContinue reading "July 25, 1920: The birth of Chushiro Hayashi"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  July 24: The Moon passes Antares Rising in the east around 10:30 P.M. local daylight time is the Great Square of Pegasus, made up of four stars: Algenib, Markab, Scheat, and Alpheratz. But of these four, only the first three on theContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, July 25: Great Square rising"

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Having launched on July 16, 1969, and landed on the Moon on July 20, the Apollo 11 astronauts returned home and splashed down in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. In a historically momentous trip, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had become the first people to step onto the Moon. (The third member of theirContinue reading "July 24, 1969: Apollo 11 returns home"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  July 23: Mercury’s retrograde path ends The Moon passes 0.6° south of Antares, the heart of Scorpius the Scorpion, at 6 P.M. EDT. This evening, the two remain nestled close, a lovely sight in the southern sky after sunset.  About 90 minutesContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, July 24: The Moon passes Antares"

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Friday, July 24The Moon passes 0.6° south of the bright red star Antares in Scorpius at 6 P.M. EDT. This evening, the two remain nestled close, a lovely sight in the southern sky after sunset. You’ll find the pair in the south early this evening, slowly arcing down toward the west throughout the evening. AtContinue reading "The Sky This Week from July 24 to 31: The Southern Delta Aquariids peak"

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Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a planetary nebula around 650 light-years away in Aquarius, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star’s outer layers. They now surround a hot white dwarf left at the nebula’s center. The imager captured about 24.3 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII/LRGB filtersContinue reading "A glowing eye"

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Earth’s orbit is getting crowded. About 16,000 satellites currently circle our planet, supporting everything from GPS navigation and weather forecasting to banking, emergency services and internet communications. Dozens more are launched every few weeks. Some estimates suggest the total number of satellites could exceed 100,000 within this decade, with more conservative estimates landing on up to 60,000 satellites byContinue reading "There are already 16,000 satellites in Earth’s orbit. How will we manage the next 100,000?"

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On July 23, 1999, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia; it would see first light a few weeks later, on Aug. 26. With resolution eight times greater than any previous scope, Chandra is the most powerful X-ray telescope ever built. The observatory is intended to help scientists understand the universe’s evolutionContinue reading "July 23, 1999: Chandra X-Ray Observatory launches"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  July 22: Dione passes north of Saturn The planet Mercury is stationary at 1 P.M. EDT. Located in the constellation Gemini, the tiny world is now rising before the Sun, visible for a short time in the east before sunrise. However, it’sContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, July 23: Mercury’s retrograde path ends"

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In 1839, the president of Harvard University invited William Bond to move into a house on campus and, by virtue of bringing along his own astronomical equipment, become the university’s first astronomer in residence. With public interest spurred by the 1835 passage of Halley’s Comet and the Comet of 1843, Harvard soon had enough moneyContinue reading "July 16, 1850: Bond and Whipple photograph Vega"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  July 15: The Summer Triangle overhead The nearly three-day-old Moon passes 0.5° south of Regulus, the heart of Leo the Lion, at 9 P.M. EDT. Just after sunset, you’ll be able to spot the delicate crescent Moon in the west, with brightContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, July 16: The Moon passes the Lion’s heart"

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Nearly 400 days and a billion kilometers after leaving Earth, China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft has arrived at its target: the near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, also known as 2016 HO3. And the mission’s first photo of the rock has already had scientific impact, reopening an ongoing investigation over whether Kamoʻoalewa began as a chunk of the Moon.Continue reading "Tianwen-2 arrives at target asteroid Kamoʻoalewa"

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Mark Killion, taken from Beryl, Utah The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) is a dark, dense column of gas and dust about 2,400 light-years away in Cepheus, part of the larger IC 1396 emission region. The feature is being sculpted by radiation and winds from a nearby massive star, which ionizes the bright rim ofContinue reading "A dusty trunk"

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When massive stars die, they explode, leaving behind supernova remnants. Given how common binary star systems are — more than half the stars in our galaxy have a companion — it stands to reason that paired supernova remnants would also be common. But astronomers have never found one. Now, hiding in the bright shine ofContinue reading "Is this the first known binary system to produce two supernova remnants?"

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Born July 15, 1943, Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a British astrophysicist best known for her discovery of pulsars. In 1967, when she was a graduate student in radio astronomy at the University of Cambridge, Bell Burnell noticed “scruff” in the data she was reviewing from the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. Bell Burnell jokingly called thisContinue reading "July 15, 1943: Birth of Jocelyn Bell Burnell"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  July 14: Mars sits north of Aldebaran Now that summer is in full swing, let’s check in with the season’s most famous asterism: the Summer Triangle. By late evening, this celestial shape is high in the southeast, bounded by the bright starsContinue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, July 15: The Summer Triangle overhead"

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Let the science begin: The world’s first commercial space telescope is up and running. On July 6, Blue Skies Space delivered data from its Mauve satellite to the international roster of universities enrolled in the Mauve Science Program, shifting the mission into full scientific operations. It’s the next step for a mission that reached orbitContinue reading "The first commercial space telescope delivers"

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New Horizons launched in January 2006, and by July 14, 2015, it had reached its primary goal: Pluto. The first spacecraft to study Pluto up close, it conducted measurements of Pluto’s atmosphere, mapped the surface geology, observed Pluto’s moons. New Horizons also investigated the dwarf planet’s interior structure, adding support to the theory that PlutoContinue reading "July 14, 2015: New Horizon arrives at Pluto"

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On the evening of June 24, 1881, Sir William Huggins directed his reflector, equipped with spectroscopic and photographic tools and located in his private observatory in London, to the head of Comet 1881 III. He captured the first photographic spectrum of a comet, and later analysis of the imagery revealed cyanogen emissions at certain wavelengths.Continue reading "June 24, 1881: First photographic spectrum of a comet"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 23: Try out the Turtle Nebula Now shining at magnitude 10.6, main-belt asteroid 21 Lutetia is sliding just south of a 9th-magnitude field star in Scorpius. The best time to observe is late in the evening in the hour or twoContinue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, June 24: Look for Lutetia’s light"

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